Africa in Berlin

04.09.2009 to 08.01.2017 Ethnologisches Museum

Four years after the opening of the internationally well-received 'Art from Africa' exhibition, the Ethnological Museum now presents four new exhibition areas to the public. 'The Kingdom of Benin' and 'Bamum. Tradition and Innovation in the Grasslands of Cameroon' give visitors an insight into the history of Africa by taking two significant parts of the African collection as examples, while the 'Contemporary Art from Africa' room sees several important new acquisitions go on display. The centrepiece of 'Africa in Berlin' is an Ijele mask that was created by a Nigerian artist for the Igbo community in Berlin.

These four new themed areas to the Africa exhibition have also been conceived of in relation to the plans for the African exhibition in the Humboldt Forum, in which the aim is to free the historical African collections from the constraints of being merely regarded from an ethnographic viewpoint. The collections do not so much stand for an exotic far-away continent which proved useful to Europeans in the way they liked to perceive themselves. Rather, they are much more testaments of a social process in which both Africans and Europeans were actively involved.

It is impossible to conceive of the development of the 20th century up to the present day without also taking the history of Africa into consideration. Africa's contemporary culture or questions of migration will be afforded much greater space in the Humboldt Forum as was ever possible in Dahlem.

Address / Getting there

Visitor entrance

Opening times

Opening times on public holidays Plan your visit Last admission and ticket sales 30 minutes before closing time.

Please notice that the South Seas collection and the collection on the ethnology of North America (Indians/Native Americans) as well as the Junior Museum will be closed from January 11th 2016.

Extended opening time Fri 6 to Sun 8 January 2017Over the weekend of 7–8 January, the Ethnologisches Museum and the Museum für Asiatische Kunst will open their doors for the last time at their current location, before preparing in readiness for the move to Humboldt Forum. For this reason, the opening hours on this weekend will be extended and special events will be on offer.Fri 6 January 2017: 10 a.m. - 8 p.m. Sat 7 January 2017: 10 a.m. - 8 p.m. Sun 8 January 2017 : 10 a.m. - 8 p.m.